Monnais wrote as a critic for Revue et gazette musicale de Paris and Le Courrier français, during which time he reviewed the work of artists including Balzac[3] and Verdi.[4] He was active in the support of music and opera, serving as Vice-chairman of the Association of Artists-Musicians, and also on juries, artistic committees and in support of competitions including the Prix de Rome.

Monnais sometimes wrote under the pseudonym of Paul Smith.[5] He retired from public service a month before his death, and died in Paris after a lengthy illness. His funeral was held in the Notre Dame de Lorette and he was buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery.[1]

1.
Revue et Gazette musicale de Paris
–
It was the first French-language journal dedicated entirely to classical music. In November 1835 it merged with Maurice Schlesingers Gazette musicale de Paris to form Revue et gazette musicale de Paris, by 1830 the Revue musicale, written and published by Fétis, was on sale at Maurice Schlesingers music sellers premises. Schlesinger was a German music editor who had moved to Paris in 1821, Schlesinger published editions of classical and modern music under his own name at a reasonable price, most notably works by Mozart, Haydn, Weber, Beethoven, Hummel and Berlioz. He also published Robert le diable and Les Huguenots by Giacomo Meyerbeer, Schlesinger founded his own rival publication, the Gazette Musicale de Paris, which first appeared on 5 January 1834. Another music journal, Le Ménestrel, had first appeared the previous month on 1 December 1833, until La Revue et Gazette ceased publication in 1880, Le Ménestrel was to be its main rival in terms of influence and breadth of coverage. In 1835, Schlesinger bought the Revue musicale from Fétis and merged the two journals into the Revue et gazette musicale de Paris. He widened the subject matter of the Gazette musicale from music itself to include literature about music – in 1837 he commissioned from Honoré de Balzac for the Gazette the novella Gambara. The name Revue musicale returned for six months in 1839 as the Revue musicale, journal des artistes, des amateurs et des théatres while the journal was a bi-weekly publication. First series, Vol.1 Vol.2 Vol.3 Vol.4 Vol.5 Vol.6 Second series, Vol.1, 8-10 Vol.11 Published on Saturdays from at least January 1831. Vol.12 Vol.13 Vol.14 Gazette musicale de Paris Published by Schlesinger,1834, Vol.11834, Vol.21835, Vol.1. 1835, Vol.2 Revue et gazette musicale de Paris Appeared on Sundays, 3rd year,1836 4th year,1837 5th year,1838 6th year,1839. From January 1839 until 11 April 1841 the journal appeared twice weekly, for the first six months, the Thursday edition appeared as Revue musicale, journal des artistes, des amateurs et des théatres with similar font and masthead design. The first edition appeared on Thursday 3 January 1839, with consistent volume numbering, as 6e année, the Sunday edition continued as Revue et gazette musicale de Paris, 6th year,1839. NB The date of the first issue is misprinted 6 Janvier 1838 instead of 1839, 7th year,1840 8th year,1841 9th year,1842 10th year,18431844 Changes to masthead design and layout. 18451846 Schlesinger sold the journal in 1846 to a former employee,1847 Reverts to old masthead & layout. 184818491850 etc. until 1880 The journal was suspended from September 1870 to September 1871 during the Siege of Paris, bringing the Franco-Prussian War to an end

2.
Paris Conservatory
–
The Conservatoire de Paris is a college of music and dance founded in 1795, now situated in the avenue Jean Jaurès in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, France. The Conservatoire offers instruction in music, dance, and drama, today the conservatories operate under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Communication. On 3 December 1783 Papillon de la Ferté, intendant of the Menus-Plaisirs du Roi, the school was instituted by a decree of 3 January 1784 and opened on 1 April with the composer François-Joseph Gossec as the provisional director. Piccinni refused the directorship, but did join the faculty as a professor of singing, the new school was located in buildings adjacent to the Hôtel des Menus-Plaisirs at the junction of the rue Bergère and the rue du Faubourg Poissonnière. In June, a class in dramatic declamation was added, in 1792, Bernard Sarrette created the École gratuite de la garde nationale, which in the following year became the Institut national de musique. On 3 August 1795, the government combined the École royale with the Institut national de musique, the combined organization remained in the facilities on the rue Bergère. The first 351 pupils commenced their studies in October 1796, a concert hall, designed by the architect François-Jacques Delannoy, was inaugurated on 7 July 1811. The hall, which exists today, was in the shape of a U. It held an audience of 1055, the acoustics were generally regarded as superb. The French composer and conductor Antoine Elwart described it as the Stradivarius of concert halls, in 1828 François Habeneck, a professor of violin and head of the Conservatorys orchestra, founded the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire. The Society held concerts in the hall almost continuously until 1945, the French composer Hector Berlioz premiered his Symphonie fantastique in the conservatorys hall on 5 December 1830 with an orchestra of more than a hundred players. The original library was created by Sarrette in 1801, after the construction of the concert hall, the library moved to a large room above the entrance vestibule. In the 1830s, Berlioz became a curator in the Conservatory library and was the librarian from 1852 until his death in 1869. He was succeeded as librarian by Félicien David, Sarrette was dismissed on 28 December 1814, after the Bourbon Restoration, but was reinstated on 26 May 1815, after Napoleons return to power during the Hundred Days. However, after Napoleons fall, Sarrette was finally compelled to retire on 17 November, in 1819, François Benoist was appointed professor of organ. Probably the best known director in the 19th century was Luigi Cherubini, Cherubini maintained high standards and his staff included teachers such as François-Joseph Fétis, Habeneck, Fromental Halévy, Le Sueur, Ferdinando Paer, and Anton Reicha. Cherubini was succeeded by Daniel-François-Esprit Auber in 1842, in 1852, Camille Urso, who studied with Lambert Massart, became the first female student to win a prize on violin. The Conservatory Instrument Museum, founded in 1861, was formed from the instrument collection of Louis Clapisson, the French music historian Gustave Chouquet became the curator of the museum in 1871 and did much to expand and upgrade the collection

3.
Paris Opera
–
The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of France. Classical ballet as we know it today arose within the Paris Opera as the Paris Opera Ballet and has remained an integral, small scale and contemporary works are also staged in the 500-seat Amphitheatre under the Opéra Bastille. The companys annual budget is in the order of 200 million euros, with this money, the company runs the two houses and supports a large permanent staff, which includes the orchestra of 170, a chorus of 110 and the corps de ballet of 150. Each year, the Opéra presents about 380 performances of opera, ballet and other concerts, to an audience of about 800,000 people. In the 2012/13 season, the Opéra presented 18 opera titles,13 ballets,5 symphonic concerts, the companys training bodies are also active, with 7 concerts from the Atelier Lyrique and 4 programmes from the École de Danse. The poet Pierre Perrin began thinking and writing about the possibility of French opera in 1655 and he believed that the prevailing opinion of the time that the French language was fundamentally unmusical was completely incorrect. Seventeenth-century France offered Perrin essentially two types of organization for realizing his vision, an academy or a public theater. On 28 June 1669, Louis XIV signed the Privilège accordé au Sieur Perrin pour létablissement dune Académie dOpéra en musique and he was free to select business partners of his choice and to set the price of tickets. No one was to have the right of free entry including members of the royal court, although it was to be a public theatre, it retained its status as royal academy in which the authority of the king as the primary stakeholder was decisive. The monopoly, originally intended to protect the enterprise from competition during its phase, was renewed for subsequent recipients of the privilege up to the early French Revolution. As Victoria Johnson points out, the Opera was an organization by nature so luxurious and expensive in its productions that its survival depended on financial protection. His first opera Pomone with music by Robert Cambert opened on 3 March 1671, a second work, Les peines et les plaisirs de lamour, with a libretto by Gabriel Gilbert and music by Cambert, was performed in 1672. The institution was renamed the Académie Royale de Musique and came to be known in France simply as the Opéra. Because of legal difficulties Lully could not use the Salle de la Bouteille, during Lullys tenure, the only works performed were his own. The first productions were the pastorale Les fêtes de lAmour et de Bacchus, Lully greatly desired a better theatre and persuaded the king to let him use the one at the Palais-Royal free of charge. The Théâtre du Palais-Royal had been altered in 1660 and 1671, the first production in the new theatre was Alceste on 19 January 1674. The opera was bitterly attacked by those enraged at the restrictions that Lully had caused to be placed on the French, to mitigate the damage, Louis XIV arranged for new works to be premiered at the court, usually at the Chateau Vieux of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. This had the advantage of subsidizing the cost of rehearsals, as well as most of the machinery, sets, and costumes

4.
Henri Duponchel
–
Henri Duponchel was in turn a French architect, interior designer, costume designer, stage designer, stage director, managing director of the Paris Opera, and a silversmith. He has often confused with Charles-Edmond Duponchel, a contemporary who also lived and worked in Paris. He was born Henry Duponchel on the rue des Lombards in Paris to Pierre-Henry Duponchel, who ran a grocery-hardware store, the family subsequently moved to the rue Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie. According to early biographies Duponchel took lessons from the painter and theatre enthusiast Pierre Guérin and was a student with Eugène Delacroix. Duponchel, who did not himself know Mornay, had influence through his friendship with the actress Mademoiselle Mars. After returning from the trip, Delacroix created one of his famous paintings. Early biographers also say that Duponchel attended courses in architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts, but this must be viewed with caution as there is no record of it in the student registers. At the time of his fathers death in 1821, he had in effect become an architect and he also pointed out that throughout his career Duponchel habitually benefited from collaboration with others. However, when the results were announced Duponchel and his collaborators won the second prize of 4,000 francs out of 170 entrants. Indeed, the first records of Duponchels work activities are in the areas of architecture, at the end of 1818 he was associated with a young architect by the name of Léonard-Ferdinand Verneuil, but in what capacity is not clear. Verneuils father-in-law was the director of the Théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin, Pierre Cicéri and Lebe-Gigun, scene painters at the Opéra, did the decorative painting, which initiated relationships that were to prove significant for Duponchels subsequent career. The work also inaugurated an important patronage from the Baron, continuing his association with Piron, Duponchel also executed in 1821 a neo-Pompeian decor for the hôtel of the actor Talma on the rue de la Tour-des-Dames. In 1826 he oversaw the construction of an elegant, small hôtel in Italian renaissance style on a site located between the garden and court of the Hôtel de Bourrienne on the rue dHauteville. Soon thereafter Duponchel joined Cicéri at the Opéra, alphonse Royer called him the Alexander of the mise-en-scène. The ballet scenario was in fact Duponchels own suggestion, replacing the previously intended staid scenario set on Olympus, Duponchel had also introduced new technical tricks, including English traps for the sudden appearance and disappearance of the ghosts. This scene became so famous that it was remembered until the end of the century, meyebeer even began to complain that the spectacle was too much and was pushing his music into the background. The press coined the term Duponchellerie to refer to scenic spectacles that were considered excessive, Duponchel also collaborated with Hygin-Auguste Cavé in writing the libretto of Halévys 1832 ballet-opéra La tentation. It was a difficult period at the Opéra after Louis Vérons retirement

5.
Balzac
–
Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence La Comédie Humaine, which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is viewed as his magnum opus. Owing to his observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society. He is renowned for his characters, even his lesser characters are complex, morally ambiguous. Inanimate objects are imbued with character as well, the city of Paris, many of Balzacs works have been made into films, and they continue to inspire other writers. An enthusiastic reader and independent thinker as a child, Balzac had trouble adapting to the style of his grammar school. His willful nature caused trouble throughout his life and frustrated his ambitions to succeed in the world of business, when he finished school, Balzac was apprenticed in a law office, but he turned his back on the study of law after wearying of its inhumanity and banal routine. Before and during his career as a writer, he attempted to be a publisher, printer, businessman, critic, La Comédie Humaine reflects his real-life difficulties, and includes scenes from his own experience. Balzac suffered from health problems throughout his life, possibly due to his writing schedule. His relationship with his family was strained by financial and personal drama. In 1850, Balzac married Ewelina Hańska, a Polish aristocrat and his longtime love, Honoré de Balzac was born into a family which through its industry and efforts aspired to achieve respectability. His father, born Bernard-François Balssa, was one of children from an artisan family in Tarn. In 1760 he set off for Paris with only a Louis coin in his pocket, intent on improving his standing, by 1776 he had become Secretary to the Kings Council. After the Reign of Terror, François Balzac was despatched to Tours to coordinate supplies for the Army, Balzacs mother, born Anne-Charlotte-Laure Sallambier, came from a family of haberdashers in Paris. Her familys wealth was a factor in the match, she was eighteen at the time of the wedding. She was not in love with her husband, Honoré was actually the second child born to the Balzacs, exactly one year previous, Louis-Daniel had been born, but he lived for only a month. Honorés sisters Laure and Laurence were born in 1800 and 1802, as an infant Balzac was sent to a wet-nurse, the following year he was joined by his sister Laure and they spent four years away from home. When the Balzac children returned home, they were kept at a frosty distance from their parents and his 1835 novel Le Lys dans la Vallée features a cruel governess named Miss Caroline, modeled after his own caregiver

6.
Verdi
–
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian opera composer. Verdi was born near Busseto to a family of moderate means. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini, whose works influenced him. In his early operas Verdi demonstrated a sympathy with the Risorgimento movement which sought the unification of Italy and he also participated briefly as an elected politician. He surprised the world by returning, after his success with the opera Aida. The baptismal register, prepared on 11 October 1813, lists his parents Carlo, additionally, it lists Verdi as being born yesterday, but since days were often considered to begin at sunset, this could have meant either 9 or 10 October. Verdi himself, following his mother, always celebrated his birthday on 9 October, Verdi had a younger sister, Giuseppa, who died aged 17 in 1833. From the age of four, Verdi was given lessons in Latin and Italian by the village schoolmaster, Baistrocchi. After learning to play the organ, he showed so much interest in music that his parents provided him with a spinet. Verdis gift for music was apparent by 1820–21 when he began his association with the local church, serving in the choir, acting as an altar boy for a while. After Baistrocchis death, Verdi, at the age of eight, Carlo Verdi was energetic in furthering his sons education. something which Verdi tended to hide in later life. He picture emerges of youthful precocity eagerly nurtured by a father and of a sustained, sophisticated. Verdi returned to Busseto regularly to play the organ on Sundays, at age 11, Verdi received schooling in Italian, Latin, the humanities, and rhetoric. By the time he was 12, he began lessons with Ferdinando Provesi, maestro di cappella at San Bartolomeo, director of the music school. This information comes from the Autobiographical Sketch which Verdi dictated to the publisher Giulio Ricordi late in life, in 1879, written, understandably, with the benefit of hindsight, it is not always reliable when dealing with issues more contentious than those of his childhood. The other director of the Philharmonic Society was Antonio Barezzi, a grocer and distiller. The young Verdi did not immediately become involved with the Philharmonic, by June 1827, he had graduated with honours from the Ginnasio and was able to focus solely on music under Provesi. By 1829–30, Verdi had established himself as a leader of the Philharmonic, none of us could rival him reported the secretary of the organisation, Giuseppe Demaldè

7.
Prix de Rome
–
The Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them to stay in Rome for three to five years at the expense of the state, the prize was extended to architecture in 1720, music in 1803, and engraving in 1804. The prestigious award was abolished in 1968 by André Malraux, the Minister of Culture, the Prix de Rome was initially created for painters and sculptors in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by completing a very difficult elimination contest, the prize, organised by the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, was open to their students. From 1666, the winner could win a stay of three to five years at the Palazzo Mancini in Rome at the expense of the King of France. In 1720, the Académie Royale d’Architecture began a prize in architecture, six painters, four sculptors, and two architects would be sent to the French Academy in Rome founded by Jean-Baptiste Colbert from 1666. Expanded after 140 years into five categories, the contest started in 1663 as two categories, painting and sculpture, in 1803, music was added, and after 1804 there was a prix for engraving as well. The primary winner took the First Grand Prize and the Second Prizes were awarded to the runners-up, in 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte moved the French Academy in Rome to the Villa Medici with the intention of preserving an institution once threatened by the French Revolution. At first, the villa and its gardens were in a sad state, in this way, he hoped to retain for young French artists the opportunity to see and copy the masterpieces of antiquity and the Renaissance. Jacques-Louis David, having failed to win the three years in a row, considered suicide. Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Ernest Chausson and Maurice Ravel attempted the Prix de Rome, but did not gain recognition. Ravel tried a total of five times to win the prize, during World War II the prize winners were accommodated in the Villa Paradiso in Nice. The Prix de Rome was abolished in 1968 by André Malraux, since then, a number of contests have been created, and the academies, together with the Institut de France, were merged by the State and the Minister of Culture. Selected residents now have an opportunity for study during an 18-month stay at The Academy of France in Rome, the heyday of the Prix de Rome was during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The Prix de Rome for Architecture was created in 1720, the engraving prize was created in 1804. A Prix de Rome was also established in the Kingdom of Holland by Lodewijk Napoleon to award young artists and architects, during the years 1807–1810 prize winners were sent to Paris and onwards to Rome for study. Suspended in 1851 it was reinstated in 1870 by William III of the Netherlands, since then the winners have been selected by the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam under the main headings of architecture and the visual arts. The Belgian Prix de Rome is an award for artists, created in 1832

8.
Notre Dame de Lorette
–
Notre Dame de Lorette, also known as Ablain St. -Nazaire French Military Cemetery, is the worlds largest French military cemetery. It is the name of a ridge, basilica, and French national cemetery northwest of Arras at the village of Ablain-Saint-Nazaire. The high point of the ridge stands 165 metres high and – with Vimy Ridge – utterly dominates the otherwise flat Douai plain. The ground was strategically important during the First World War and was contested in a series of long. In total, the cemetery and ossuary hold the remains of more than 40,000 soldiers, the basilica and memorial buildings were designed by the architect Louis-Marie Cordonnier and his son Jacques Cordonnier, and built between 1921 and 1927. A small building was raised in 1727 by the painter Nicolas Florent Guilbert and it was destroyed in 1794, rebuilt in 1816 and transformed in 1880. Notre-Dame de Lorette ND de Lorette at Web Matters French site Notre Dame de Lorette

9.
Adolphe Adam
–
Adolphe Charles Adam was a French composer and music critic. Later set to different English lyrics and widely sung as O Holy Night, Adam was a noted teacher, who taught Delibes and other influential composers. Adolphe Adam was born in Paris, to Jean-Louis Adam, who was a prominent Alsatian composer and his mother was the daughter of a physician. As a child, Adolphe Adam preferred to improvise music on his own rather than study music seriously and occasionally truanted with writer Eugène Sue who was something of a dunce in early years. Jean-Louis Adam was a pianist and teacher but was set against the idea of his son following in his footsteps. Adam was determined, however, and studied and composed secretly under the tutelage of his older friend Ferdinand Hérold, a popular composer of the day. When Adam was 17, his father relented, and he was permitted to study at the Paris Conservatoire—but only after he promised that he would learn music only as an amusement, not as a career. He entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1821, where he studied organ and harmonium under the celebrated opera composer François-Adrien Boieldieu. Adam also played the timpani in the orchestra of the Conservatoire, however, he did not win the Prix de Rome and his father did not encourage him to pursue a music career, as he won second prize. By age 20, he was writing songs for Paris vaudeville houses and playing in the orchestra at the Gymnasie Dramatique, like many other French composers, he made a living largely by playing the organ. In 1825, he helped Boieldieu prepare parts for his opera La dame blanche, Adam was able to travel through Europe with the money he made, and he met Eugène Scribe, with whom he later collaborated, in Geneva. By 1830, he had completed twenty-eight works for the theatre, Adam is probably best remembered for the ballet Giselle. He wrote several ballets and 39 operas, including Le postillon de Lonjumeau. After quarreling with the director of the Opéra, Adam invested his money and borrowed heavily to open a fourth house in Paris. It opened in 1847, but closed because of the Revolution of 1848 and his efforts to extricate himself from these debts include a brief turn to journalism. From 1849 to his death in Paris, he taught composition at the Paris Conservatoire. His Christmas carol Cantique de Noël, translated to English as O Holy Night, is an international favorite, Cantique de Noel is based on a poem written by M. Cappeau de Roquemaure. Adam is buried in Montmartre Cemetery in Paris, List of operas by Adam List of ballets by Adolphe Adam

10.
International Standard Book Number
–
The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker

Revue et Gazette musicale de Paris
–
It was the first French-language journal dedicated entirely to classical music. In November 1835 it merged with Maurice Schlesingers Gazette musicale de Paris to form Revue et gazette musicale de Paris, by 1830 the Revue musicale, written and published by Fétis, was on sale at Maurice Schlesingers music sellers premises. Schlesinger was a German mu

1.
Cover of Revue et Gazette Musicale de Paris (15 November 1835)

Paris Conservatory
–
The Conservatoire de Paris is a college of music and dance founded in 1795, now situated in the avenue Jean Jaurès in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, France. The Conservatoire offers instruction in music, dance, and drama, today the conservatories operate under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Communication. On 3 December 1783 Papillon

2.
Former Conservatoire building (until 1911) in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, which now houses the CNSAD (48°52′23″N 2°20′49″E﻿ / ﻿48.873074°N 2.347001°E﻿ / 48.873074; 2.347001)

3.
Site plan (1836) of the Menus-Plaisirs, the Concert Hall, and the Conservatoire

4.
A concert in March 1843

Paris Opera
–
The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of France. Classical ballet as we know it today arose within the Paris Opera as the Paris Opera Ballet and has remained an integral, small scale and contemporary works are also staged in the 500-seat Amphitheatre under the Opéra Bastille. The companys annual budget is in the order of 200 million euros, w

1.
Front of the Palais Garnier illuminated at night

2.
Le Grand Foyer, at the Palais Garnier

3.
View of the Salle du Bel-Air

4.
Vigarani's plan of the Salle du Palais-Royal

Henri Duponchel
–
Henri Duponchel was in turn a French architect, interior designer, costume designer, stage designer, stage director, managing director of the Paris Opera, and a silversmith. He has often confused with Charles-Edmond Duponchel, a contemporary who also lived and worked in Paris. He was born Henry Duponchel on the rue des Lombards in Paris to Pierre-H

1.
Henri Duponchel

2.
Design for a new opera house by Botrel, Crépinet, and Duponchel (February 1861)

4.
Scene of the "Ballet of the Dead Nuns" in Robert le diable (1831), a co-design of Cicéri and Duponchel

Balzac
–
Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence La Comédie Humaine, which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is viewed as his magnum opus. Owing to his observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society. He is renowned for his characters, even his lesser characters are complex, morally ambiguou

1.
Honoré de Balzac painting based on an 1842 daguerreotype by Louis-Auguste Bisson.

2.
Vendôme Oratory School – engraving by Armand Queyroy

3.
Drawing of Balzac in the mid-1820s, attributed to Achille Devéria

4.
Laure, Duchess of Abrantès

Verdi
–
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian opera composer. Verdi was born near Busseto to a family of moderate means. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini, whose works influenced him. In his early operas Verdi demonstrated a sympathy with the Risorgimento movement which sought the uni

1.
Giuseppe Verdi Portrait by Giovanni Boldini, 1886

2.
Verdi's childhood home at Le Roncole.

3.
Antonio Barezzi, Verdi's patron and later father-in-law

4.
Margherita Barezzi, Verdi's first wife.

Prix de Rome
–
The Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them to stay in Rome for three to five years at the expense of the state, the prize was extended to architecture in 1720, music in 1803,

Notre Dame de Lorette
–
Notre Dame de Lorette, also known as Ablain St. -Nazaire French Military Cemetery, is the worlds largest French military cemetery. It is the name of a ridge, basilica, and French national cemetery northwest of Arras at the village of Ablain-Saint-Nazaire. The high point of the ridge stands 165 metres high and – with Vimy Ridge – utterly dominates t

1.
Part of the French National Necropolis

2.
Basilica

3.
Second Battle of Artois, 1915

4.
Lorette Cemetery

Adolphe Adam
–
Adolphe Charles Adam was a French composer and music critic. Later set to different English lyrics and widely sung as O Holy Night, Adam was a noted teacher, who taught Delibes and other influential composers. Adolphe Adam was born in Paris, to Jean-Louis Adam, who was a prominent Alsatian composer and his mother was the daughter of a physician. As

1.
Adolphe Adam, Lithograph, 1850

2.
"Maestro Adolphe Adam". Photograph. Paris, circa 1855

3.
Detail of Adolphe Adam engraving from the library of the Royal College of Music, London

International Standard Book Number
–
The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning

1.
A 13-digit ISBN, 978-3-16-148410-0, as represented by an EAN-13 bar code